I was super surprised and humbled about being picked as one of the five winners in last week's Feathered Friends - Show Me A Photo Contest Round 81. This was despite there being so many other great entries. I eluded in my post that I had a few other pictures of the Kestrels shown in my entry. So as promised I will now share them with you n this post. =)

The summer of 2011, also known as way, way, back

As a student in Sweden, I used to try and work during the summer holiday as a way to supplement my income for the rest of the year. Let's face it. You are not living that large as a student. Well, at least not in Sweden.

I come from the west coast of Sweden, Gothenburg originally. But raised just outside in a place you probably never heard of called Mölndal. The one big dominant industry there has basically always been Volvo. At least for the majority of my life. And with many people in my family working there, it was sort of a natural thing for me as well.

But I always applied for a position the proper way, so non of that nepotism crap. Anyway, let us get back to it. For the last couple of years, I have spent my summers driving a forklift truck over at Volvo Parts, the spare part facility on the west coast covering northern Europe.

The place is literally situated a stone's throw from the coast, so on sunny days we always had that nice ocean smell. Or as some like to call it salty I guess. =)

My stomping grounds

The place I worked at was mainly outside under a large tin roof. There I had a small cabin where I could sit if there was not much to do. But as the guy who normally had the job was a chain smoker the cabin was more of a tar- and nicotine pit.

But over the years we stand to have a few pigeons as company, up in the rafters. But in the summer of 2011, they were nowhere to be found. But I guess I did not really notice them missing, to be honest.

Instead, I was made aware of a new bird that had made the rafters it's home. A nesting pair of Kestrels. I was initially pretty clueless about their presence as they were nesting in a part I rarely spend much time under, at the opposite end of where I usually worked in fact.

But my co-workers on the inside clued me in pretty fast. Why you might ask. Well because of this. As it appears young Kestrels are very sloppy eaters. So there were regularly dead birds, rodents, and whatnots on or around these stacks of pallets.

And I would say that is the biggest difference between young Kestrels and young pigeons. People would hardly react if there were a dead larva here and there. But birds and rodents here and there. People tend to be squeamish and notice them. ^^

Enter the Kestrels

And of course, my first reaction to hearing about this literal carnage, or field of death if you like, was cool. I got to see if I can get a look at the birds.

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This picture not only shows the Kestrel but also the corner under the tin roof where they nested- You can also see some of the normal-sized stacks of pallets. The cardboard piles are what the people inside use to ship out parts. So most of the time they just come out and get a stack of what they need themself. So I rarely have any deed to be over here. The same goes for the blue container, it is the cardboard trash compactor.

The photo is also most likely my first close encounter with one of the young birds. They don't look that fierce, quite cuddly in fact Kind of pidgeon-like if you... OMG half the bird is just claws. Was close to my first reaction. But it still looked cute. Cute but deadly.

The following days

What followed was me usually, in my spare time, of course, looking to see if I could spot the birds. Then doing some recycling of my own. Killing two birds with one stone so to say.

This meant me finding one of the freshly dropped kills and throwing it to them. That was in short how I spent the end of the summer of 2021.

Here are some of the other pictures I got throughout the summer.

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In case you were wondering what a dead bird did in the middle of a pallet stack =)

And sadly the pictures are pretty pore, as all I had available at the time was my iPhone 4. =( But I hope that you have found some enjoyment in them non the less.

But despite the pictures not being the best, I still got my memory. And at least for the time being it is pretty clear. And I still remember this summer with fond memories.

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Picture provided by: Me =)